Guild Wars 2

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

Maybe it’s because you tried to combine two incompatible goals?

1) map completion and do Living Story
2) explore a strange new map

The first, most people are going to try to rush through and get them done but shouldn’t the second, explore a new map, be where you take the time to look around, check out this and that and try different routes to get to where you want to go. Should map exploration be made simple so that there’s no real exploration in map exploration but is a straight line, no thought needed rush to get it done?

It’s funny because that’s how I feel about flat maps, which are all the same, thus boring. Multi-tiered maps are actually different. And some of my favorite maps in the game.

I mean I see no real similarity between Bloodstone Fen, Verdant Brink, Tangled Depths and Draconis Mons. Not sure what you think is similar.

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

you know over 90% of the maps are flat right? < 10% is not really overabundant. In fact there is a massive over abundance of flat maps.

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

Over abundance? There’s 4 not including the towns.

vesica tempestas.1563:

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

you know over 90% of the maps are flat right? < 10% is not really overabundant. In fact there is a massive over abundance of flat maps.

Referring to the HoTs maps. They’re all tiered level.

Edit: And all of the newly released zones tied to the living story are tiered.

phokus.8934:

vesica tempestas.1563:

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

you know over 90% of the maps are flat right? < 10% is not really overabundant. In fact there is a massive over abundance of flat maps.

Referring to the HoTs maps. They’re all tiered level.

Edit: And all of the newly released zones tied to the living story are tiered.

Auric Basin, Dragon Stand, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier, and Lake Doric are tiered? Ok…

Ayrilana.1396:

phokus.8934:

vesica tempestas.1563:

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

you know over 90% of the maps are flat right? < 10% is not really overabundant. In fact there is a massive over abundance of flat maps.

Referring to the HoTs maps. They’re all tiered level.

Edit: And all of the newly released zones tied to the living story are tiered.

Auric Basin, Dragon Stand, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier, and Lake Doric are tiered? Ok…

Although less dependant on such, Auric and Dragon Stand are tiered.

Randulf.7614:

Ayrilana.1396:

phokus.8934:

vesica tempestas.1563:

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

you know over 90% of the maps are flat right? < 10% is not really overabundant. In fact there is a massive over abundance of flat maps.

Referring to the HoTs maps. They’re all tiered level.

Edit: And all of the newly released zones tied to the living story are tiered.

Auric Basin, Dragon Stand, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier, and Lake Doric are tiered? Ok…

Although less dependant on such, Auric and Dragon Stand are tiered.

No they’re not lol.

Ayrilana.1396:

Randulf.7614:

Ayrilana.1396:

phokus.8934:

vesica tempestas.1563:

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

you know over 90% of the maps are flat right? < 10% is not really overabundant. In fact there is a massive over abundance of flat maps.

Referring to the HoTs maps. They’re all tiered level.

Edit: And all of the newly released zones tied to the living story are tiered.

Auric Basin, Dragon Stand, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier, and Lake Doric are tiered? Ok…

Although less dependant on such, Auric and Dragon Stand are tiered.

No they’re not lol.

Yes they are, without any question. You start a bit under the canopy when you first arrive into Auric and you head down onto the jungle floor. Dragon Stand has a jungle floor, a small amount of undergrowth region and a small amount of canopy sections.

phokus.8934:

vesica tempestas.1563:

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

you know over 90% of the maps are flat right? < 10% is not really overabundant. In fact there is a massive over abundance of flat maps.

Referring to the HoTs maps. They’re all tiered level.

Edit: And all of the newly released zones tied to the living story are tiered.

ah well this is not the HOT forum, and no not all HOT zones are tiered, there have been 9 zones since hot was originally released. over 90% of all zones in GW2 are flat including the 9 zones that have been introduced.

Edit unless you are ignoring all zones prior to October 23, 2015 but including 3 out of the 4 zones released on that date then ignoring all zones after – odd thing to complain about in 2017.

You can also walk to most of the places in Draconis Mons. It takes a lot longer to do so but you can still walk to (or fall on in come cases) most places

his point seem to be there was an over abundance of tiered maps released on October 23 2015 but not before this date or after.. go figure.

The problem isn’t with the area but with the map, they need to rethink/redesign the minimap and overworld maps in to something that more clearly shows vertical space.

Randulf.7614:

Ayrilana.1396:

Randulf.7614:

Ayrilana.1396:

phokus.8934:

vesica tempestas.1563:

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

you know over 90% of the maps are flat right? < 10% is not really overabundant. In fact there is a massive over abundance of flat maps.

Referring to the HoTs maps. They’re all tiered level.

Edit: And all of the newly released zones tied to the living story are tiered.

Auric Basin, Dragon Stand, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier, and Lake Doric are tiered? Ok…

Although less dependant on such, Auric and Dragon Stand are tiered.

No they’re not lol.

Yes they are, without any question. You start a bit under the canopy when you first arrive into Auric and you head down onto the jungle floor. Dragon Stand has a jungle floor, a small amount of undergrowth region and a small amount of canopy sections.

That part of Auric Basin is like 5% of the map? That’s like complaining about Dredgehaunt for being tiered because of the center of the map or complaining about Brisban being so because you go downwards into the Skritt area.

Dragon’s Stand has very little map levels which overlap.

Edit: Our definition of what is and isn’t a tiered map is likely different. We could hash out exactly what should be considered a tiered map but that’s likely outside of the scope of this thread. This may just be something that we have to agree to disagree.

phokus.8934:

What’s with the over abundance of tiered level maps? It makes exploring these maps not fun, boring, and pretty frustrating when you are trying to map complete and follow the living story. I’d be fine with the tiered level maps if they weren’t so crazy to get to – follow this daisy chain of updrafts and jumps just to get to a new tier; make a small turn and start over from the beginning.

The maps are nicely done but the fun factor in exploring them and having the same boring style is dwindling pretty hard.

You have to remember, the 4 tiered HoT maps were a selling point of the expansion and the use of masteries to access tiers a fundamental point of their design. The reception has been quite mixed, but certainly popular enough that they decided to pursue more with Draconis Mons and Bloodstone Fen. Draconic Mons was particularly praised on release by a lot of players, which is prob quite encouraging for the designers.

Are they for everyone? No. But, those, like myself who love the uniqueness and the myriad of exploratory pathways get something to thoroughly enjoy. In turn, we get maps like Lake Doric which I found incredibly bland, but others really loved. Not every map is for everyone, but HoT was built on the vertical map premise.

There is a trend of making them more accessible though. Draconis Mons has the most number of options of travelling between tiers, including updrafts, vents, oakheart essence and of course linking walkways. That should be a positive sign going forward that any future vertical maps (if any) will be easier to navigate.

Conncept.7638:

The problem isn’t with the area but with the map, they need to rethink/redesign the minimap and overworld maps in to something that more clearly shows vertical space.

So far Draconis Mons is the only area that has done a really horrible job with that. The map only handles 3 layers but some areas have more than 3 layers. As a result there is no way to look at certain locations in the map without being in the area. One of the spots is at the destroyer event that takes place near Broadleaf.

My problem with the map is that the PoIs show up on every level of the World map as ‘active’. The only way I can tell if they are on my level, above or below is to get nearer them and see the little arrows on the mini-map and gauge the distance from ‘units away’.

Thank goodness it’s only PoIs that do that (although, they are most prominent in Map Completion).

People also seem to forget that there are a bunch of Central Tyria maps that are also annoying tiered, its just less noticeable because half the map is underwater. Go to places like, Frostgorge Sound, Lornar’s Pass, Malchor’s Leap, etc. and you will quickly start to become annoyed at the height variance (if you’re the type).

Try swimming from the deepest areas to walking to the highest areas – ouch !

Some parts of Malchors Leap are even as bad as Bloodstone Fen, its just that without wind gusts and ley lines no one notices because when you walk up to your destination (Temple of Lyssa, Dwayna, etc.) its a smoother transiton.

What really set the HoT maps apart was having no way to walk to your destination, however this is not the case in Draconis Mons which has land paths.

Once you saw it a couple of times you know most of the places. I like it with Tangled Dephts one of my favourite maps.

Vayne.8563:

It’s funny because that’s how I feel about flat maps, which are all the same, thus boring. Multi-tiered maps are actually different. And some of my favorite maps in the game.

I mean I see no real similarity between Bloodstone Fen, Verdant Brink, Tangled Depths and Draconis Mons. Not sure what you think is similar.

I could state at least one similarity with TD, DM, and to a lesser degree VB:

Getting to events is obnoxious.

Then again, Dry Top is equally an offender, just from its convoluted wall structure and utter lack of events.

So yeah, I feel OP’s frustration too.

I must be one of the very few that like the new maps, including the HoT ones. ~shrugs~

Rauderi.8706:

Vayne.8563:

It’s funny because that’s how I feel about flat maps, which are all the same, thus boring. Multi-tiered maps are actually different. And some of my favorite maps in the game.

I mean I see no real similarity between Bloodstone Fen, Verdant Brink, Tangled Depths and Draconis Mons. Not sure what you think is similar.

I could state at least one similarity with TD, DM, and to a lesser degree VB:

Getting to events is obnoxious.

Then again, Dry Top is equally an offender, just from its convoluted wall structure and utter lack of events.

So yeah, I feel OP’s frustration too.

DT doesn’t have a lack of events. It has synchronized events which can result in large gaps in having events being available. The synchronized events are good for pushing up the tier because many events can be finished in parallel but terrible for anyone trying to do events. Unfortunately pushing up a tier for +1 geode is nowhere near as good as +100% geode by having an additional event completed.